1 year, 2 million vertical feet for skier

SKIING -- Starting Jan. 1 and hitting slopes on both sides of the equator, Greg Hill of Revelstoke, British Columbia is 80 percent through his goal to climb and ski 2 million vertical feet in one year -- all self-propelled.

To put this in perspective, powering through 2 million vertical feet is the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest three times a month for a year. It’s like scaling each of the seven summits, then starting over again, until you’ve done it 14 times.

For the city bound, it’s like taking the stairs to the top of the Empire State Building four times a day, every day, for a year.

But Hill is making this epic in remote, high-altitude mountain ranges, in avalanche terrain, often with 50 pounds of gear strapped to his back.

Hill has just logged 1.6 million vertical feet and is on pace to accomplish his goal, according to backcountry.com.

He’s been around the world skiing this year. After skiing for months in South America's winter, he recently returned to his hometown of Revelstoke, British Columbia, to finish his mission.

Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.